


you made your choice long ago

by orphan_account



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Agender Chara, Agender Frisk, Angst, Big Brother Sans, Chara Has Issues, Chara Has Their Own Body, Chara Redemption, Flavortext!Chara, Frisk Uses Sign Language, Houseplant Flowey, Mentally Ill Chara, Multi, POV Chara, POV Second Person, Post-Pacifist Route, Selectively Mute Frisk, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-06-07 05:35:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6787684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chara returns. Things aren't exactly the way they planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. despite everything, it's still you.

**Author's Note:**

> this is self-indulgent garbage and i couldn't be more proud.

When you wake up, everything is dark.

This really isn't anything new. You're used to the dark. You've been in the darkness since... well, you can't exactly remember how long it's been, but something tells you it's been a very long time. But that was different. That darkness was like floating in the middle of an ocean, utterly alone, yet utterly unafraid. No pain, no sight, no sensation, even. You certainly weren't lying on your back on splintery wood, trapped in what feels like a very cramped room.

You try to push forward, and your hands immediately hit what you assume is a door. But it's blocked. Not locked, but  _blocked_ , like something huge has been shoved in front of it, something you can't even hope to push away.

You suddenly become aware of something. The absence of something, really.

Air. There's no air in here.

Instantly, and against your better judgement, you claw at the door. You've died once before, and you're not doing it again, not yet, not until you figure out what's going on.

The door doesn't give. Of course it doesn't. Why would  _anything_ go right for you?

"Help!"

You cringe. Is that really your voice? You sound so...  _small_. You can hear panicked gasping in your voice, and you cry out again. And again, and again, and again.

Nobody came.

You can feel your strength slowly seeping away. Your struggles begin to dissipate, partly from oxygen deprivation, partly because you don't even feel like fighting anymore.

"Help..."

Before the pain fades, you hear a cracking sound, like an old wooden door being ripped off its hinges. Lights floods in as the door is pulled back, bright even through your closed eyelids. Something wraps around you - a rope? A vine? Whatever it is, it pulls you up and out of the room. Up? It's not a room, it's a box, one that was buried in the earth. A coffin.  _Your_ coffin.

The rope or vine lays you on the ground. You're covered in dirt - it's in your hair, your mouth, your eyes, your nose. You feel cool grass pressed against your face, and air floods your lungs. You sit upright, gasping for air. It's stale, but you take huge gulps of it, sucking it into your burning lungs. As soon as your breathing slows, you begin to look around, taking stock of your surroundings. You're in a cavern, beneath a tree, in front of a house. There's a flower next to you.

"Ch-Chara?" it says, trembling slightly.

You want to ask the flower how it knows your name. You want to ask the flower how it's even  _alive_. Flowers can't have a SOUL, right?

"Chara?" it asks again, its voice stronger this time, and you feel a sharp pain in between your eyes. Memories come flooding back to you.

_It's kill or be killed._

_Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide._

_Howdy! It's me, your best friend!_

"Asriel?"


	2. your best friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i am g a r b a ge has it seriously been like a month since i updated jesus chirst  
> send your hate mail to 123 sin avenue

The flower -  _Asriel_ \- winces a little when you say its -  _his_ \- name.

"Not exactly," he responds, shrinking back a little. "It's been... do you know how long you were down there?"

You shake your head. You assume that, by "down there", he means in the ground. Dead. Which you were, and now you're not.

"A long time," he answers simply. "And, look, things are a lot different now."

 _Of course things are different_ , you want to scream at him.

"Why are you-"

"A flower?" he finishes. You nod. There's a sinking sensation in your stomach, only heightened by the strange way he looks at you.

"Aren't you supposed to be this all-powerful monster?" you ask. "Asriel Dreemurr, God Of Hyperdeath?"

"It's a long story," he mutters, finally taking his eyes off of you. "Are... are you  _sure_ you don't remember anything? Nothing at all?"

You concentrate hard, trying to remember something,  _anything_ from before you ended up here.

You ate the buttercups. _I_ _don't like this plan anymore, Chara._

Asriel- you- the two of you went up to the surface.  _What are you doing with that child?!?_

And then... and then...

You can  _feel_ the arrows piercing your-  _Asriel's_ body. You feel his life seeping out, feel the beating of his heart slow to a crawl. You feel him collapse in front of Mom and Dad, you see the look of horror on their faces. Everything fades to black.

"You didn't fight back," you say in a low voice, and Asriel shudders a little. "Why didn't you fight back? You could have killed them! With all that power-"

"It wasn't that simple, Chara," he shoots back.

"What wasn't simple about it?" you snap, and you can feel the anger creeping into your voice. "You  _stood_ _there_ , you let yourself  _die_. Asriel, we did this to-"

_"I'm not Asriel!"_

That isn't Asriel's voice, not by a long shot. It's dark, and deep, and it sounds like the crying out of a million furious voices, all rolled up into one sentence. But it has to be Asriel. How could it not be? He knew you, he rescued you, he's your  _brother._  That's Asriel, right?

"I'm not," he says, quieter this time, as if becoming aware of his rage. "Not anymore. When I came back, it was as..." He gestures down to his body. "This. A flower. Flowers don't have SOULS, Chara. Asriel did. I'm not Asriel."

"But how are you even alive?" you ask. "You need a SOUL to live, right?"

"I said it was a long story," he answers. "But I'm not Asriel. I'm Flowey. Flowey the flower."

He says those words with such  _purpose_ that you feel like he's trying to emphasize something, and you vaguely remember something. You remember him saying that, you remember seeing him saying that, but it wasn't you, not exactly. It was almost like... like you were in someone else's body, controlling it just a little bit, guiding it, helping it. Not it,  _them_.

There was a child. Another human child, one that fell down here, right where you're standing. You guided them, didn't you? Or did you posess them? A name, the child's name, is on the tip of your tongue, frustratingly out of reach like the memory of a long-forgotten childhood friend. They were the one who freed the monsters. They broke the barrier, let everyone out of the underground. You were there- not  _there_ , exactly. More like you were in a dream, vaguely floating around as an independent spectator, influencing whatever you could.

"The kid," you say, looking Flowey in the eye. "The other kid. I need to see them."

Flowey nods decisively. "Okay then."

A hole opens up in the ground, one just big enough for you to climb into. It doesn't seem like it was dug there, just like it's a black circle, going on forever and ever.

"We're going to the surface."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the hole thing is sort of inspired by the way flowey follows you through the game and sort of disappears into the ground when you turn. i really didn't want to write a whole chapter of just them walking through the underground is what i'm saying

**Author's Note:**

> WELP HERE'S ANOTHER THING FOR ME TO GET WAY TOO EMOTIONALLY INVESTED IN


End file.
